¶ Turkey Hunting Tips and NWTF Convention
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So , in other words , apex makes sure that the conclusions to those long-fought battles of spring are instant , absolute and ethical . Alright what's going on y'all ? Welcome back to another episode of the Spring Leisure Podcast , dipping into February of 2025 this week . And could not be more excited . Got a lot of good times on the horizon .
So anytime you flip a calendar page at this time of year kind of gets the juices flowing a little bit more , get the blood pumping . When months turn to weeks and then weeks turn to days , kind of the days they drag along , but at the same time , in the grand scheme of things , it's flying by . So we're in the thick of it .
We're going to be doing a lot of stuff over the next week or two , and luckily Jason and I who's joining me today- we're able to sit down . It's about 10 o'clock at night , the night before this Joker publishes , but we were able to make our way down to Mobile Alabama . Grab a camper shell at last . Finally .
Finally Took about 40 , 45 days to find it , but we did Going to have to paint it and fix it up , but got something to sleep in come march . But I'm gonna be talking about finding turkeys to hunt today and that's a very popular subject . Usually that's one I enjoy talking about .
I love listening to other folks talk about , because if you can't find them , can't hunt them , right ? What I'm saying ? That's 90% of the battle , most of the time , half the time as a hunter , if you can just find them a battle is won .
You know , you've got to hunt ahead of you Right .
I feel like the only . When I come back , you know down hard and just beat up , it's because I couldn't find a turkey to hunt . It's not because I got whipped by one . I'm usually still having a good time getting my butt whipped by a turkey Right , but if there's one that whipped my butt , I'm cool .
Right , right and that's kind of how that practically could be a recap of my 24 season .
And I've had seasons where that's a battle I can't win . If I do find it , we're good .
But I cannot find one . For the life of me Hunting Mississippi , I can count on probably one hand the amount of times I found birds that were huntable yeah . On land I could hunt , you know , or whatever you want to say .
It's tough some years and some years it's not , and some years you're lucky and some years you're unlucky . But there are several rules of thumb we'll hit on .
I want to inform you all of a couple things that'll be happening soon before we dive into the discussion , because no telling how long that's going to take in the rabbit holes we'll we are bound to to get down . First and foremost , um nwtf convention is coming up and uh want to invite y'all to come hang out with us there at our booth . We will be .
If you , once you enter the registration and all that good stuff , you enter the big kind of that's the guess you would say big awning-looking thing walking into the actual sports show , if you hook a right walk towards the big Mossy Oak Corner . They've kind of established their real estate there .
The Mossy Oak Corner , I'd say Country Outdoors should be around there , that big RV of theirs . If you look through Nomad's booth , you should see us from the entrance . We should be visible and we'll have a lot of good stuff there . From the .
From the entrance , we should be visible and we'll have a lot of good stuff there , one of them being , uh , one of the first 100 copies of the Ballad of a Turkey Hunter , any Given Spring Morning book that will be releasing February 13th .
So it's going to be releasing at the convention and then there will be an option to buy one of these slick dust jacketed covers for collective purposes of the book . We've got all the books in , got all the dust jackets in . They're here . They're heading to nashville with us on february 13th where we will be releasing them
¶ Promoting Book Release and Gear Sales
. Um turned out pretty slick . Buddy mason went to college with uh , hooked us up with some dust jackets here . That really tied it all in together and and uh made it worth a while , I'd say . I think folks who do buy one are going to be glad that they did .
And and then the um but the main thing is I and this was a thought of mine , kind of doing this .
I hope these don't wind up being mantel pieces too too much , you know . Um , I've got some mantel pieces of collective things I've got in the turkey hunting realm and there always will be . They'll never actually enter the woods or or get dusty and I kind of protect them and stuff .
But as flattering as that would be to think of , I don't necessarily want this to be that . I actually I wrote a note in the in the back of the uh , the dust jacket here , just kind kind of putting that into words .
And , you know , may it reach the hands of more and more turkey hunters with every spring that passes , you know , earning its proper character and dog-eared pages and bent , you know , edges and stuff like that along the way . But 10% of that is going to go back into wild turkey research and conservation .
Yeah , we'll have those and we'll also have just the general combination copy of the book and it's just a combination of any given spring morning , the ballot of a turkey hunter , all bound in one pretty solid hardcover right there . So but yep , let's see .
And if you , if you're unable to attend the show , it's still releasing february 13th on amazon , so you can always get it there . It's just going to be unsigned .
Right unsigned .
No price difference nothing like that . And you can probably honestly get it quicker than we're able to get back home , restock everything online and ship them outside . We'll have those . We'll have all of our 2025 gear that I'm sure you all have seen by now , if you haven't check it out .
At springleaguecom Going to be running some specials , some deals and stuff like that that are just kind of exclusive to the show . If you try to log on to our website in the meantime , between the dates of February 13th and 17th , I'd say you're probably going to find a limited supply of stuff .
It's a you-know-what to run an online business and an in-person business simultaneously and wouldn't really wish that on anybody because , it's tough , especially when you're dealing with stuff running on stock and people buying it at home . And then you see it there .
You see 20 of these left and you're like , okay , they're for sale they're really already sold , you know so we're gonna be splitting it up . so if you want to grab something , you're not going to be splitting it up . So if you want to grab something and you're not going to be at the convention , go ahead and do it .
Ain't nothing going to drop in prices between now and March 1st . I wouldn't think we might incorporate some specials and stuff , but you might snooze and lose a little bit , and that's not just an ad there , that's looking out for you . Aside from that , really , we got YouTube going on , released another episode yesterday at 3 pm .
Every sunday at 3 pm we should be releasing new hunts . This one was a hunt that we've actually already talked about on the on the podcast chase over mississippi , and uh did well . The first one did well and I do believe I did promise a giveaway for folks who do share a story or something of that nature of the actual episode last week .
And let me pull it up because I'm not prepared , as I never am actually , let's see Adam Campbell . If you listen to Adam Campbell , underscore 78 , you got him . You got our free pre-gators .
Bingo .
So I had it written down , but I lost that piece of paper and I knew I'd still find it in the archives though . Right , but yep , but that , and I think I want to say there's a couple things I wanted to mention as well about folks who do attend . Oh yeah , wear the stuff .
If you're wearing Spring Legion at the convention in , swing by Our Booth at checkout . We'll toss a free pair of gloves in your bag there . Got those in . They'll be for sale for those who aren't wearing them . But if you are and we don't notice it at first , you can remind us .
You're not going to , you know ?
Yeah , because there will be a thousand things going on every second so don't blame us if we don't notice or don't forget to do something , and that's something I want to address as well .
Well , like we might look a little stressed out in that booth , but there's nothing more we want to do than tell turkey and take pictures with y'all and stuff like that don't feel , uh , you know , like you're in the way or anything like that . Like there's a lot of moving parts , but that's what we're there to do .
100 yeah , that's . I mean , that's what we look forward to the most right , really um yeah there's a lot going on at all hours of that whole week which is why we love it , and that's the week we look forward to the most every year . I'd say , other than opening day .
And it's close . It really is Right there at it .
¶ Turkey Hunting Preparation and Strategies
I know whenever I pull out of the driveway headed to Nashville every year , by the time I pull in my driveway , I ain't sleeping past 2 am very often , which I'm here on now .
I kind of I caught the bug pretty , pretty good last night about 2 am this morning , honestly editing a hunt of it was you and I hunting and it was , but we bumped the turkey and had to come back around and I'm like , yeah , just just kind of seeing some clips that I'd completely forgotten about and just hearing certain birds and stuff that I completely
forgotten about , it was um , kind of got me going . Um , I'm not gonna lie , hearing wing wing bats , kind of you know , after a turkey got shot .
Just it wasn't part even in the frame , but I could hear and I was like that's the first time I've heard that all the time um , kind of got my my blood flowing there and I was like , yep , I got it , I'm down with it , down with the illness right and this weather we have right now ain't helping it's getting down about 47 every night .
Right now turning up 73 is today .
Yeah , we're . Of course we're flirting with the coast , going to get the camper show , but we were coming home a matter of hours ago , and I heard tree frogs for the first time . I'm like ooh .
That ain't good .
You hear that you know like that'll send you over . And then I pointed my windshield and told Chase I was like you see them . It's hitting some bugs on the windshield First time I've done that in a couple months .
I feel like you know it's warm enough for bugs to be out Yep , hearing tree frogs passing over some creeks and stuff , and I was like it's upon us . Whether you know it or not , it's creeping up on us .
Yep .
I might go listen .
I don't know there might be one gobbling in the morning . Yeah , not in the morning .
I ain't going because I'm going to be up until 2 am doing this . But yep till 2 am doing this , but , um , but , yep , so we're gonna dive into finding them turkeys today , all right , and um , we don't , we don't .
This isn't like a q a thing , but we do get asked these questions pretty often and a lot of them are specific to an area , to a general state or region , or yeah , which is which changes the answer .
So I mean .
The answer turkey hunters get and give most is it depends , and that's not going to change . If there is a better answer , if there's a definite answer , I'd give it , but a lot of it . The quickest answer is it depends .
It depends on where you're , at what time of year , how many birds are there , what happened to those exact birds the day before all this good stuff weather . But like we always mention , there's generalities and rules of thumbs that we do try to throw out there and y'all can take it from what it's worth .
They're not always 100% correct , but they're stuff that , if you ask me and we're on the way to go hunting , this is what I would say .
We've seen a pattern in it of some sort . At some point we assumed .
Yeah , yeah , something for us to notice , right . But I mean , the place I'd start by finding turkeys , and this could go for public or private is water . Yeah , wouldn't you say ? That's the number one . You've got to pick a vanilla flavor of water .
Water's a big factor .
And it ain't got to be a lot all the time , right , no , and it ain't got to be a lot all the time , right , no , um , I'm not positive . I'm not a biologist , I don't know if it's a safety matter or if it's a um , acoustics matter . Some people suggest that they can be heard better over water .
I , I mean , I think it's a little bit of everything , but safety being one of them . You know a critter that can't swim , can't climb that tree , but it's not going to swerve you from owls and other things that can get you at night .
And I think that turkeys are I call it kind of like a place of option or a point of options , where they like to get where they don't . If the hens are on the right side of the creek , they don't have to fly a creek , they don't have to guess after they fly down .
You know they get to where they pick a , they cut it in half , the decisions in half , and then they'll cut that decision in half and that decision in half , right , um , so they start in the middle and you know straddle in a line . They can pick right or left and then you know , go from there . Yeah , I try to do the same if I can help it .
High points sellers and high points and stuff like that . But , but , um , but finding turkeys is a matter of how much time you got first off and a little bit of luck . I'd say you got to start at a good spot or you're going , and I have done this . I've .
I've went a whole year without finding a turkey on public land before , and I lived 10 minutes from it . Um killed three turkeys in those spots the next year . It was just a matter of finding where they were and more so where the turkey hunters weren't Right .
I was hunting where turkeys should be and saw track scouting and stuff and thought I had it lined up . I was , you know , showed up at the gate , number six in line . I felt like I was like , well , this might not go as well .
Yeah .
But finding the gates that you can even go down is a big plus .
That is a big plus .
That is a big thing .
That's something I did A couple days before and I've had them shut the day of the morning . You know , morning I go in . There Must have been after me then . Yeah , I think a lot of the shut gates you're running into are people shutting them .
I thought that have you heard that story ? I know I've thought on this , I ain't going to do it again , but I called the bluff and it should have been shut .
Somebody really shut it and I got in a bind . Yeah , mudhole Real deep yeah .
And it was too deep in it and then thought I could just go all the way through to the main road and that gate was locked so I had to come back through .
I mean , I didn't get out of there were living together , probably was For like that one month , and yeah , you weren't back . And it was . Yeah , I went to go About midnight , bruce one got back at .
Yeah , you ain't , you ain't all right and you can't . Really I didn't want to call nobody . Hey , can y'all come help me Because I know I wasn't supposed to be down here .
Right was like you're an idiot yeah , no , I'm not coming to help you .
That's why we shut the gate to keep you people like you from calling us at midnight um but now what I will do and I've done this especially in new , when I moved to georgia and had to go find new public land that I wasn't familiar with and even this past spring or this , yeah , this past spring was kind of the first chance I had to scout around new
mississippi public land right or or area for that matter is . I will make a loop and I'll drop pins on gates that are shut and gates that aren't .
Mm-hmm .
Because a lot of wasted time if you don't have a turkey to hunt and you're having to resort to a plan B or a plan C is getting there and you look at a map look at a paper map or look at an online map and you look and see , you know this is the quicker route I map . And you look and see , you know this is the quicker route .
I can be here in jiffy and you get halfway in it . You're not able to right . I get shit and you got to go all the way around . You just left a decent spot to wind up at a better spot , but it's going to be an hour and a half later and yep , your options are you know doing misrepresented there when you're weighing them um .
So that's first thing I do is is truck scout . But I'm not even looking for turkey sign or anything like that . If I , if I come across some turkeys , run across the road .
That's cool , absolutely I'll mark that .
But main thing I want to know is which gates can I go down ? Which gates can I go down ? And then I'll hone in on some of that could be good options . You know , down the road , if a lot of people would be passing them up , can I , can I get on my feet and walk down this road and , um , what's down it ?
So to speak , don't , don't waste your time walking down roads . There's just nothing , um , but a lot of times , and I , and I've noticed a lot of times that where you see turkeys is very linear , it'll be like it might be on a different road , three roads over and deeper in there , but if you connect the dots , it's in a it's , it's something .
There's a commonality of some kind between the two . That's the highest point in the whole place and it's running down the whole place . You know , right , it might look totally different and be very far away , but if you , you know there's some kind of main creek .
There's always a creek everywhere , but there's a main creek where you always wind up seeing the birds or hearing the most , and that sometimes has to do with you know if it floods or not .
Good point it keeps the , you know , path of least resistance . More around that creek is more you know , easier going it's , you know . Maybe clear it out more underneath , Maybe the understory is less dense . Is what I'm trying to say , that out more underneath maybe understory is more , less dense is what I'm trying to say .
That's something I pay attention to around creeks . You know , if it's got a thicket on both sides , you don't want to set up . You don't want to walk down the creek to set up on that bird if there's one gobbling over it . You probably want to find that road , or ? You know opening area , loading dock from logging or something .
That's 50 yards from it , from the creek , and he's probably flying in and out right there . Yeah , that's a thought I've had . I don't know how many times I've actually used it .
Yeah , um , just something to early season scout for right , and and another thing is burning is going on a lot of times around this time , right , um ? So so chicken and burn .
They have schedules and and I , you know , I don't know how right they are , you know , when it comes to sticking to them and stuff , so much depends on weather and atmospheric , some things and things that are over my pay grade , but you'll probably run into a forester or whatever the Us forest association .
however , they well . You know the white trucks , white truck , you know if you see a white truck with a tree on it um , um , if you're running them , I will ask them again what's y'all's plan for this ?
and they'll tell me , and I , and I've called up there and you'll get a lady of some kind and hey , what are y'all gonna burn this or whatever . And she didn't send me , she didn't send me a link , but she , she told me where to go to see a map at one point . Um , I don't know if that's for everywhere , but but it was . It was beneficial to know that .
Hey , they're , they're gonna be up in here . I know , turkeys love burns , but they don't love fire you know so so that's where I was , and I say this because I have scouted the mess out of an area found plentiful turkeys .
It showed up on March 15th to a blaze , and I'm like well , they're not there today , but now I've got to find somewhere new Might be there . You know , I don't know . I mean , some folks have pictures of them walking in the smoke and smoldering fire and I'm like they ain't walking in that , because that will burn them Right .
Because there's people out there actively doing it Right . So I had to find somewhere new and that was just kind of like a . I didn't have necessarily all my plan Bs were in the part being burned , so there wasn't really much I could do . So that's a good little tip to remember . I'm trying to think of a couple more . Let's see .
I'd say that you're able to go if you're gonna put boots on the ground . You're not stupid for going to look for turkey sign right now . Some folks get out there . I mean you can get out there november look for turkey sign .
It just may not still hold true , right ? So that that brings up the the conversation of your buddy walking up to you and saying man , I got turkeys all over my place . We should go hunt . When did you have to ? You know when is the question I always ask and you know a lot of people look at me like I'm crazy when I ask that .
Well , I got them on my trail cameras all the time . You know 40 or 50 of them I was hunting , I saw 40 .
We got 40 you had 43 .
Yeah , you're gonna like and , and I don't know , like the , your neighbors probably thought they didn't have any right . So I mean , that's , that's something to think about , like you know , if you think , you know , and some people don't know , that turkeys turkeys roost in the in the wintertime in different areas , normally in the springtime .
Yeah , there may be one or two still hanging around there in the springtime , but you aren't going to have 50 longbeards that you saw deer hunting normally .
Yeah , they'll be broken up Right and they'll find greener pastures that they're bound to Just like deer do .
In the summertime you'll have bachelor groups and then you know , once the velvet comes off , they go . You know they break up . It's a different animal Right A whole other person .
You start seeing those feathers get shiny on a gobbler . It's the same thing His waddle starts getting lower and lower , or whatever they're called . You're kind of like eh , he's getting primed up . You know , they look like a different turkey in November than they do in March . Right , and they're kind of going through that transition .
¶ Turkey Behavior and Food Sources
And right now is the I believe I'm not saying for sure , but we're talking around right here this is when their pecking order is kind of getting fine-tuned , starting to get situated . You know , if it isn't already they're pushing out , who they're going to try to push out and who's going to be the top dog and stuff like that , and you'll see .
And the groups I have seen , you know with my own eyes here lately have been groups of hens or jennies , and then groups of jaguar gobblers , whereas it had been just a group of poults , and then a group of mature turkeys , kind of regardless , right , um , the gobblers are separate than from the hens that I've seen , and then , um , and even the , the , the
younger birds , that is all jakes are all jennies or vice versa , and and and we have seen a couple showing up on some of the deer trail cameras . We have just long , long beards and stuff yeah , at the same time I started seeing the jakes kind of pop around and strut and pop each other .
Oh yeah , so something Start jumping around , he might have gotten kicked out or , you know , hadn't seen that one , yeah .
And all of a sudden he just shows up and he's been there a day or two . Yeah , you know so something's going on in the pick and order business .
I feel like I say , from my kind of day of when I want to kind of start shifting , to go listen and kind of feeling like they're going to kind of start asserting their dominance is about February 20th to the 25th . Somewhere in there is when they're going to kind of start marking that territory pretty hard . You know what I'm saying , right ?
And I say that to say that you can go look for sign now and you're going to be in a ballpark at least . Yeah , yeah , you can start there . For sure , because I mean you catch that fine little pocket of days . Those hens and gobblers are meeting up still after the roost and you can get in between them and it's usually on the first week .
You know youth season's down here .
That's what you're trying to do , you know , because usually the gobblins are still in a bunch of three to four maybe , and the hens are in a bunch of 400 to 500 . It feels like it for sure , and if you can get between them , you're all right .
It's hard to mess up if you don't do much , you know because they're going to kind of all just meet up and you're just kind of trying to move and get in the middle of it . They're going to it , um , they're gonna cross you at one point across your bus .
You want I don't know , but um , or you'll bust them , but um , but yeah it ain't , it ain't too early to get out and start looking for tracks and start looking for scratching and stuff like that . And then that kind of leads you into , uh , the mass crop probably pays .
It pays a lot to do with that I want to get dudley phelps on here big time to explain a little bit of that , because this past , past year I don't know everybody's situation but we ain't got no acorns Zero , so I don't know . I'm sure I've hunted several seasons where that was the case , but I don't remember paying attention to it .
Right . I don't know what that's going to do . The drought in Mississippi really hurt the acorn crop this year , and that's across the board , it seems . From what I've picked up . Everybody I know , from north to south , to east , to west Mississippi , alabama and Louisiana . You know stuff of that nature there the deer were hurting this year Really .
You know the food plots were gone .
Really .
Pretty much , just because there was not an acorn crop .
But some do and I don't know . That's why I want to get Dudley or somebody here , who might not have that answer on here . What was the difference ? I don't know .
Because , yeah , when you do find some , you find a lot .
Right . I don't know if it's a soil deal and it could be a species of tree deal .
I don't know . Yeah , I have no idea , but that would be a good question for Dudley .
Take . Take that out of the equation on a normal year I'm looking you know ravines , lower areas that are still holding acorns . Obviously it depends on the right kind of acorns , you know , small enough for turkey to eat . Um , you know , by then the acres that have fallen and have not been eaten have have wound up in a crevice . Yeah , you can find a .
Can find a crevice . You can probably find some scratching . If you don't find no scratching , there probably ain't nothing to scratch for .
If that makes sense , this is more of a question .
I have .
So bug crop , that's a big one , the bugs , and I've kind of always this has kind of been on my back burner .
So the swampy , wet , nasty soil areas where you see a lot of , you know , wompy , wet , nasty soil areas where you see a lot of dead leaves wash up and scratch , I almost think more they're scratching for bugs than scratching for acorns and things of that nature , that's a good point .
And if acorns are in a flooded area or something of that nature , the ones that sink when they get pushed up when water comes up and then they get hung up there , they're rotting acorns , so they'll attract bugs . True , I would assume . Maybe it's something I've been kind of trying to pay attention to . I don't know the answer to it yet .
But that is a thought I had about two seasons ago and I've been keeping it kind of on the back burner .
That's a good point . It sounds like me and my tadpole theory . Right in my tadpole theory , right right , which I will say this Jason Hart , our buddy , must have reached out the other day and told me that he heard something . I don't remember the exact you know scenario or occurrence , but he mentioned Ben Rogers .
Lee had mentioned tadpoles before I don't know what he said about them .
He told me but I've forgotten , but it made me feel like not an idiot , thinking about you know , and that's a quote-unquote tactic I kind of did use this past year once I kind of picked
¶ Turkey Hunting Location Tips and Strategies
up on it . I think I was with Austin when I did . I'm like dude , there are tracks everywhere around these mud puddles and none around these mud puddles . And I looked , I'm like , well , that one has tadpoles and that one ain't got no tadpoles , Right , um .
But we went and hunted and came back and we didn't hear nothing and saw more tracks there like so they really they were silent but it was a muggy morning , you know , wasn't hearing nothing , but if nothing else , I knew that there was turkey around . If I didn't think to go check again , I would not have known . Turkey was around , fair .
And I want to say he and our buddy jenny's went back like the next morning or a couple mornings after that and they were lighting it up . They were probably around turkeys the whole time . I think I did go with them at some point in between there and we got on one , but I guarantee you there was .
I mean I think they heard he said they were like four or five and I bet you there was four or five there the whole morning . It's just a way to verify whether or not turkeys there . You're looking for turkeys . I'm not we're talking about hunting them . Today I'm talking about finding them . Um , that was something I started , you know , paying attention to .
If I , it's kind of like the , the acorns if you find a bunch of acorns and there's not much scratching in , there might not be a turkey there yeah don't get mad at the acre you know , um , I see a bunch of tab holes , and ain't no turkey tracks around might be because there's not any right .
These are just places to give a shot or give a look , give a deeper look , potentially you know kind of thing .
Yeah , I'm trying to think of a couple more . The main thing that I feel like folks remember most and I didn't mean to coin a phrase , there's an actual , I'm sure , terms for them , but I call them mushrooms and omega signs and creeks .
Omega signs and creeks yeah , and I and my my findings of that very brutal season not hearing a turkey , that's one thing I did did figure out that , and it was the next year when I figured it out .
But if I could find a way to , to get close to one of them , wherever a creek kind of goes like this bubbles up , because an oxbow would probably be a more I don't not a lake but I think I think the term oxbow also means doing that shape it's almost like a horseshoe . Let's just say that yeah , puzzle piece , puzzle piece , there you go .
They hovered around there for some reason or another , and I've heard a lot of theories . A lot of folks have chimed in on that one particular thing . They've either noticed it or knew a better reason to it , and then some folks have theorized if that's even a word that it could be a sound thing .
Yeah , you know , mine was kind of like I feel like it floods quicker , so maybe it's open .
I feel like it's more of a protection thing Could be . You've got water almost on three-quarters of your sides .
Like a corral too . Yeah , you know , if you're trying to corral a bunch of hens up , I don't know . Yeah , I'm not a turkey .
It's kind of a circle of water that they don't want to cross .
One of them questions I don't ask .
The video we released last week . Whenever we popped in the creek and popped back up , we were on one of those puzzle pieces . And I don't think we knew it at Like .
I remember like we didn't have any turkeys there either , though .
Right , but they were just you know . Yeah , they were jakes , but they were . You know , there was a bunch of turkeys .
They were right there .
Sitting on that X of it .
And they were comfortable there , yep so .
Yep so .
That's my bread and butter right there , If I'm going in blind , as you know not always .
I will say , since you pointed that out to me , I've noticed it several times , you know , and sometimes after the fact . Yeah , but this is one of those things that I do believe a little bit of truth .
No , I don't know which side . I can't tell you that . Right , but I try to get within 150 to listen . Tell you that right , but I try to get within 150 to listen . Um , I think , um that , and then , and then there's , and there's always the factor of scarcity , and this goes for private and public .
You know equally if , what , what might you have that it's not found for a while ? Or like especially these little 20 , 40 , 60 acre ? You know pieces of properties , you know the 60 acre . You know pieces of properties . You know little leases that are .
You know stuff you can paint a gate for kind of deal .
Very , very small ones that sometimes have turkeys and sometimes don't . And you know , and I've had a lot of folks , you know , dm us and ask them what can I do for this property ? Right , it's 17 acres . You know , I can't do that . This property right , it's 17 acres . You know I can't do that . I can't burn .
I can try out , but I already caught four coons on it . I don't know what else , you know , it's just I'm just kind of setting pointless traps at this point kind of deal . You know I've killed everything and every now and then I'll catch one . But but and I say , you know , look around your neighbors and what do they have and what don't you have ?
And and they know , turkeys are in the area . It's just , you know they float , they're not always there , and they're not always going to be there , ain't nothing you can do to make them always ?
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¶ Turkey Hunting Location Tactics and Strategies
But what about sand and rock and dirt ?
Do ? They have a lot of that ?
because I've suggested that before and I've never I haven't done this , but I've been on properties who didn't do it intentionally , but the they're pretty much non-competitive with the surrounding areas and they had just dissed up a bunch of stuff and those turkeys didn't leave there for about a week .
I'm like well yeah , when in doubt run a daggone tiller through it , you know , at least give them some dirt and stuff and they'll .
They'll hang out a while yeah , turkeys love fresh dirt and I don't know if that's the bug factor again , you know coming in or the dusting or what it could be . Um , I have noticed . You say that you brought that up . I have noticed you say that you brought that up .
I have noticed places that have grass paths , paths for their trails through it , versus places with gravel yeah , dirt trails through the property . What did you notice ? More turkeys on the gravel . Really , because of the crawl situation , I think .
No , I mean , I think you know . They're a bird , if you can put a lot of things conveniently placed together , whether it be , you know , creek bottoms have acres , have water .
You know that's a lot right , there have bugs , have probably some grit you know stuff you know in there , but if you can kind of also put it where there's sunlight , or also put it where there's , you know , strut zones , and and then you shift in the nest cover towards the end and that's where you're going to start finding them in between yeah , don't , don't
sleep on , cut over birds , shoot don't tell nobody about cut over birds . That's pretty much it , yeah um no , that's my favorite bird to hunt . There's a fresh cut over bird yeah , fresh or one year old .
Yeah , because of nest cover . Yeah , the hens are going to drag them there If you can hunt both the woods and a section next to the cover , and they love an enemy .
I don't blame them . They just get in there and you can see for miles and they're usually somewhere high .
Yeah .
And you can kind of see down in there .
And you'll realize .
And they're loud when they're in those woods because it's almost like they're trying to throw it across that whole dang place . But they're still in a bunch of hardwoods echoing and stuff they're fun to hunt .
That may have something to do with the transition line too . To do with that , I've heard a lot of transition talk .
Oh yeah , and in not a shiny sense , it's familiarity where they used to live ain't there no more , and so now they're habitual animals , habitual animals , I feel like , and that's you know , they're still their spot . They just had to get . They got pushed out , you know .
But , um , but let's see , I'm trying to think of some other things I try to do finding turkeys I wouldn't advise asking around , not down here , at least because , you'll wind up in at the white house or in the Gulf of Mexico .
Hit on field birds at all . Field birds , okay . What do you have to say about them ? Because I'm kind of I'm not a fan of field birds . If I can help it , I enjoy hunting them . I mean , I don't mind it , but I'd rather not .
I wouldn't if I'm not out of here .
Pick the the choice , if you know what I'm saying , um , but if that's what you got , if you got a place with a bunch of cow pasture or field , you know ag fields- this the easiest way to find a turkey to hunt is just to see him because you know exactly what he's doing where he's at and he's heading in the direction he's walking towards usually
yeah , um , that can change , but a lot of times times , wherever they're walking towards is where they're going . If you can lay eyes on them , that's always good , but you have a chance to get . You digest a lot quicker what the scenario is , as opposed to your ears wondering how many hens he's got , wondering what kind of mood they're in , yada , yada .
If he's strutting and not strutting , that's a big difference in what they're doing , what his mindset , the mind space he's in . Laying eyes on them is always good . You can ride around and do that , so can everybody else .
So it's kind of I don't put all my marbles in that for sure it's kind of a bonus if I see one from the truck and you know , down here it ain't gonna happen .
But you know other areas you could acquire permission right um um , yeah , we're not diving into how to hunt these scenarios .
Yeah , necessarily are we I mean we have 40 minutes . I think there's still several other things . I look for trying to find birds . I can think of y'all , just give me a second .
But um , shades one , and I remember looking for shade several times , getting where other turkey hunters aren't , as it's my that's the biggest thing if you can , if you can get there yeah and this is a public land . I mean , I'm sorry I have some private references most of mine are going to be public just from our situation .
Um , but that the the main learnings . I learned the tough year I had not being able to find one . Not , I didn't hear a gobble , I'm telling you I was .
I was , uh , pretty hard up there for a while and it made it worse , it made the sickness stronger , it made you know I was even more bound by April 30th than I was March 15th , and I thought I had it bad at March 15th , but I didn't .
Oh yeah .
Until you go a whole year without hearing one . But I would look for and this is when I feel old when you have paper maps- oh yeah . I had a paper map in my vest and I had one in my notebook and my book bag and I had a lot of paper maps .
And I still have a lot of paper maps because it makes it easier for my mind to digest what's on the table , not to say I don't also , you know , use the e , the E stuff too to an extent , but the paper maps kind of take some congestion out of that frame there and break it down into main things , I would look for waterways of some kind .
This is , you know , general speaking , but this is still what I do . I still do this . I find waterways and I try to get in the middle of them , find a way that find a barrier to humans as much as turkeys . Remember , turkeys can fly , humans can't .
Humans can find a log to walk over a creek and some humans will walk through the creek , you might get down into , you know , south central Mississippi , probably not much stopping many of them at all .
Right .
It depends on where you're at , but if you can find those ways to get across some creeks and get up in between these creeks , so this might not go for opening day , but give it a week or two . Once the folks start squeezing in , squeezing in , squeezing in , those turkeys , go somewhere and you find a way to get over in there .
You might not be the only one that knows how to get in there , but if you can get in there the quickest , if you know where that log is , drop a pin on the log . Don't worry about the turkey . Find the log , find the log .
Now I'm talking for the stuff that's shoulder deep , you know , yeah , if it ain't shoulder deep , suck it up , jump , jump as far as you can , um , or ?
hope whoever's competing with you can't jump as far as they can , yeah , but but a lot .
That's not going to keep a ton of people out . You can . You can find a spot that you can cross a lot easier . I'm talking about finding short enough stuff . You got to have log cross or you got to have this or that , and there's . There's different ways to access things and and listening is is is one of them .
If you get out and just go listen for turkeys , you'll learn a lot and you might not even hear a turkey gobble , but you'll see , you'll learn that they , you know now there's a new fire lane or something that was different than last year , and all that stuff .
And sometimes and that's something you can't be too dependent on some of these you know satellite maps , because that whole section might not be there no more , right I think as of lately it's pretty daggone close . Pretty close , you know unless they cut it this week .
It's it's probably right , but , um , but yeah , if you , if you can find that , and then , and finding and and turkeys like the same areas year after year , that I've , that I've noticed , right , um , and , and it's going to depend on how many you got and all that good stuff , but I think a lot of that has to do with topography or elevation situation stuff .
That's something I do .
I study the topography a little more you know , as far as If you can get that in your head pretty good , you know there's tendencies there , yeah .
But that's more as of . Came from where did I hear a turkey ? Let me look at my map now .
I kind of worked reverse for a while . Yeah , which is smart .
And just hope I stumble into one . Then , okay , there was something here , let me put a pin on it and like , wait , what you know , get back to the truck and be like , let me look at that , Dive deeper into that situation . You know , and I'll kind of I veer towards the topography type stuff bridges and flats and benches and holes and whatnot .
And getting to where you can hear , that is another thing , you know . I mean , seeing them is one thing , but being able to hear them is another thing . First the places I'm going . I've already told y'all in one of these books cemetery .
Oh yeah , cemeteries always got birds . If you go to a cemetery , you're going to hear a turkey somewhere .
It could be
¶ Turkey Hunting Location and Tactics
December .
I feel like any time I'm at a cemetery , I'm going to hear a turkey . I can hunt him , yep , but you're probably going to hear one , and I don't know .
I don't know what the coordinates are for burial places , but I feel like something to do with elevation . I don't know . You know it's always on a high spot . And then the other ones . You know someone named Peggy .
Peggy , they're going to knock on her door because they're going to wheel you and deal you and stiff as negotiators I've ever dealt with , but I don't know Something about it . I don't know it must have been a popular name whenever all these timber companies came in and they inherited the right land .
But other than that , you know , if you can find a long ridge to get down , you're all right and you can drive and listen . For turkeys , I mean , I've heard them doing that they might not be there after the first week because they're going to be dead or pushed away or tight lip .
Right .
And it takes a while for them to come back is what I'm saying . You're going to have to find some plan Bs on down the way .
Right .
And you're going to have to get , and what I would do is find a very long main ridge where you can kind of listen off this side , listen off this side .
All that good and and and you'll , you'll learn a lot about a place and the hunters on and this probably would apply for private too , you know , if you , if you're the guy who's there listening pretty regular and you're in a camp , I'm saying there's , you might figure out who else is there , pretty regular , you know joe blow , who you didn't think turkey hunted
that much , but somehow always , always kills three the first three days . Right To find out that joke's been out there scouting since January . He just turkey hunting . He don't tell you about that you know Uh-huh . He just acts like he's just there you know working on a foal with or something like that . But he's really finding these turkeys .
He's putting in the hours , he just ain't it right , um , and stuff like that , and and , and and . Not a bad guy to be friends with . You know , getting on the same page with folks before the season is probably a little more beneficial , I'd say , than finding out , showing up and going .
Well , I want to hunt that ridge , and you know that's why he's mad about you want to hunt that ridge because he's been out there every day . And all of a sudden you show up on open today like , well , I want to go where you've been scouting and putting in work .
That is a situation we ran into not long ago with a little lease we had with a group of people .
We were the only people turkey hunting .
We pulled in opening day and there was five trucks there .
Who are you yeah ?
and literally they weren't in the camp .
Uh-uh . They were friends of friends of friends , yeah , such and such on the line . Yeah , bring him over here , get him up here right now .
Yep , uh , I do . I forgot all about that , yeah , that was a sour situation um and then I waited till noon , went in that same place yeah , and killed the bird that they had hunted all morning yep , that's the first turkey I got on film . It sure was . We need to find that that'd be a good one .
That was the first turkey I got on film . It sure was . We need to find that That'd be a good one .
I got it somewhere , it's terrible , but it's something .
It's probably better than mine , I promise you . I've been looking at a lot of mine lately , but we'll think of some more . Y'all shoot us some questions or something like that . I think you can comment . I know on Spotify you can comment Apples . I don't know if you can . You can leave a review . Leave it , yeah .
Leave us a review with the or whatever it's called , not a rating , yes , or review with a question you might have , and then always we're , we're available on the social medias tiktoks and instagrams , stuff . Shoot some dms , comment on a picture or something like that .
And just if y'all got some more specific locating questions , we I spend a lot of time trying to find turkeys .
Oh yeah .
You know I have a lot more to say .
I just got to remember Without being asked .
it's hard to dig that deep in the memory bank .
And maybe , yeah , maybe , some scenarios would help . That's always hey , what are you hunting ? I hunt pines , I hunt fields , I hunt hard bottoms , I hunt swamps . What do you do here ?
There's water on it now ? Yeah , and you know if we're just finding turkeys . Wet areas are good because you can find tracks Right and you know very wooded areas . It might be a little difficult but you can find scratching . If you're going to find scratching , a lot of times you can find it efficiently .
It's gonna be in an embankment , like if there's a road , there's a driveway . you know it's a little ditch or something the opposite of it , like if you've got a driveway , you know there's two banks on the side , then it turns to woods , right . I mean , I've got several places in mind . Um , I was actually .
I was out Blake Dowell last year , year four last . I think we were just riding around the place literally just screwing off , until he went with me to Mr George Mayfield and we were just riding around and everywhere we saw scratching was on an inclination of land of some kind .
You know , if you're driving in , there's always a— if you're going to swerve and wreck a truck , you're gonna hit a bank . That bank , that's what I'm talking about . That's where the turkeys will be scratching a lot of times .
Um and learning , learning the difference in a squirrel and a hen scratching right , or a little bit , yeah , and a hen scratch um , there's a difference yeah , and it took .
It takes a little while to understand that one that .
That's for sure . Turkey For a lot of starters . Yeah , that's turkey and that's not .
you know , that's a squirrel .
Yep .
A lot of things move leaves .
Yeah , and the biggest one that'll pull you is water . Oh yes , you will think of the turkey tore up a place . I've been with folks and I didn't want to tell them because they were so excited and I'm like , brother , that's just from water running down the hill Just like a light amount of water .
If all the leaves are pushed up against the same side of the saplings , that's water pushing . It looks a whole lot like it it does it really does ? And , I'm glad , your heart's pumping with it . It's gotten me a few times too , I will say that you know , and it'll be like you ran a fluffer through it kind of stuff and there is no way to determine .
But if it looks like a , you know , a dang bomb went off underneath it and there's just stuff everywhere , a lot of times that is turkey . It's just a big group of them . Generally speaking , the hen groups are bigger than the goblin groups Work accordingly you know , If you want to hunt just where the goblins are , they ain't going to be there long .
They're going to find the hen group , so that ain't bad . Just because you see no hen tracks don't mean you're in a bad spot .
Right , and in the middle of the season they ain't worried about scratching and looking that hard for food . They're worrying about a lot of other things , right ?
You want to be where the hens find that food Exactly that want to be where the hens find that food . Exactly that's what I'm saying . The garbolo eat whatever they don't eat what pops up , yeah and um . And turkeys are opportunist ? Yeah , I think so .
If that's an instinct thing , like you'll see a turkey coming on a string all of a sudden , he folds up and bites a grasshopper and then comes back and he don't , I don't . I think it's in their hard wire basically they don't pass it up . Yeah they cannot pass up food , they'll find it . It , I promise you .
Oh yeah , I do know late season , you'll find them . Some folks think they won't go to field , like you know , food plot stuff in the late season because of the bull naps . Some people think they love the field because of the bugs .
I don't , I don't know .
I've only shot maybe maybe two . My whole life in a food plot .
Yeah .
And it wasn't my food plot . I was at a buddy's place Right , just happened to call him up to it . Yeah , and I don't not much experience with it . No , I don't either .
I hate bullnats . I avoid them . I don't even know what you're talking about the bugs .
Bullnats , the gnats that get in your eye oh god , yeah , yeah those yeah um a lot if you go walk through a food plot in april about 9 30 am see if they don't follow you . The rest the whole way home . Yep , um , I've heard . I've heard both . I've heard folks say that they love them .
I've heard a lot of folks say that they hate them as bad as we do and they'll avoid them at all costs yeah but that's a time dependent thing . We'll talk about later late season stuff later on . But but , um , but yeah , that's , that's all time-dependent thing . We'll talk about late-season stuff later on . But yeah , that's all I can recall for today .
So I mean , I filled up 50-something minutes , so shoot us some more questions and I don't know what next week's going to hold . We'll be this time next week . We're going to be sweating bullets because we'll be packing the trailer getting ready for NWTF .
¶ Upcoming Unconventional Podcast Guests and Gear
I want to say I'm not going to promise y'all nothing , but we're going to get a couple guests on in the coming weeks that are not the usual guest , not popular guests . It'll be folks you might know , might not , but a little away from the mainstream .
We'll put it that way yeah um , and , and that should be coming out week of that second week of February , and um , we might , we might wind up bumping into a guest or two up in Nashville and there'll be some some folks who know a thing about turkey that could learn us up on some stuff and , in term , maybe learn y'all up too .
Yeah , but looking In term , maybe learn you all up too yeah .
But looking forward to seeing a lot of you all . I know this will be our chance to see and shake hands with a majority of the hands we shake coming to Nashville . So , regardless , be sure to swing by , come see us .
I don't care if you buy nothing , just come by and say what's up , want to meet as many folks as we can and try to take care of you all while we're there , with as much as our um financials will allow when it comes to show specials and stuff like that . So I'm gonna have a few releases there y'all might want to swing by and take a look at too .
But until then , y'all take care and we appreciate you . Listening to the spring legion podcast . If you followed along on the spring legion youtube channel these past few seasons , you've probably watched us hunt turkeys in a variety of North Mountain Gear's leafy jackets . Y'all should also know by now that we wouldn't be wearing one if they didn't absolutely work .
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